Voter age gap: El Paso must go after younger group

It is often said that elections are about the future. If that is so, why did El Paso have almost twice as many voters over age 70 as under age 40 in the recent municipal and school elections?

An El Paso Times computer-aided analysis of voters in the May 11 election showed that of the more than 48,000 voters, more than 12,300 were over 70, compared to about 6,800 under 40. That includes more than 4,000 voters over the age of 80 vs. fewer than 3,000 under age 30.

El Paso is hardly alone in the huge age gap in voting, particularly in non-presidential elections. But it's clear that the key to increasing turnout in our elections is to better engage younger voters.

Several mayoral candidates in the May 11 election, particularly Hector Lopez and Steve Ortega, made a concerted effort to target younger voters. It's clear those efforts didn't yield dividends.

Ortega barely limped into the runoff with Oscar Leeser with less than 22 percent of the vote, and Lopez was able to garner only about 9 percent of the vote.

Less than 4 percent of registered voters under the age of 30 cast ballots in the May 11 election. Among registered voters 30 to 40, it was only 5 percent, and even among voters 40 to 50, turnout only reached 10 percent.

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By contrast, turnout was 17 percent for those 50-60, 25 percent for those 60 to 70, 30 percent for those 70-80 and 20 percent for those over 80. (In reality, the turnout for older groups is probably understated because the registered-voter rolls likely contain thousands of people who have died in recent years but are still on the rolls.)

Improving turnout among younger voters is a huge challenge, but a necessary task for our community. Civic groups should make it a priority in coming years to create campaigns that aim to get people under 50 to vote.

Such groups frequently conduct registration drives, but registration isn't the issue. We have huge numbers of registered voters who simply never vote.

The Times analysis found more than 100,000 El Pasoans who registered to vote before 2006 but haven't voted in any election since 2006. That includes almost 43,000 people under age 40.

Elections truly are about the future. But those with the most years ahead of them -- the younger voters -- simply haven't gotten engaged. There is a lot of blame to go around -- to candidates, to media, to younger voters themselves.

It will take a massive, concerted community effort to turn this around.

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